Organic Garden Project

“The Organic Garden Project...is an incredible opportunity to educate people of all ages in a meaningful, hands-on way about the importance of sustainability, organic gardening practices and the role that pollinators play in the ecosystem.”

Harry Liggett, Zoo New England Manager of Horticulture and Grounds

Ruby throat hummingbird

Honeybee on buckwheat

Long-legged fly on mustardleaf

Fleabane

Candy striped leafhopper on mustard

Augochlora sweat bee on mustard

Ruby throat hummingbird

Marigold

Cabbage white butterfly on fleabane

Hoverfly on buckwheat

Launched in the spring of 2014, Zoo New England’s Organic Garden Project is an initiative to provide organic food and enrichment to Zoo animals sustainably. The main garden, measuring 50-feet by 40-feet includes animal dietary staples like romaine lettuce and endive. The second garden measures 50-feet by 30-feet, and it includes red peppers (a favorite among our animals), carrots, turnips, pole beans, squash, swiss chard, pumpkins, and a variety of herbs. Buckwheat (a "green manure" that adds nutrients to the soil) is grown in a third garden, which measures 60-feet by 20-feet.

Gardens are surrounded by insectary plantings, which include dill, fennel, forsythia and cosmos, that are intended to attract beneficial insects such as ladybugs, hover flies, predatory wasps and others. Insectary plantings are also used as enrichment --novel food and play items for the animals. The organic garden also includes 100 raspberry plants and three apple trees, which will be used to supplement exhibits and for enrichment.

In addition to creating produce, the garden provides the opportunity to provide education regarding the importance of fresh, locally grown produce and how to start small-scale organic gardens on their own. Under the guidance of the Zoo’s Organic Garden Project Committee, a dedicated team of volunteers constructed the garden. It’s now maintained by a team of volunteers, interns and ZooTeens, who all lend a hand composting, weeding, harvesting, washing and reseeding crops.

And the animals play a role in their garden by making daily contributions (i.e: poop) to the Zoo’s compost, made fresh at Franklin Park Zoo.

Science and research are also at work in our garden. We use Integrated Pest Management techniques (read more on those here) in keeping the garden and the entire Zoo pesticide-free. Volunteers observe and keep a log of bugs found on leaves, noting color combinations or leaf shapes that may attract certain insects. This record-keeping guides gardeners’ efforts in choosing the right insectory plantings to control pests. Likewise, bird visitors are also closely monitored.

The garden project is supported in part by the Massachusetts Service Alliance and the YOU Generate Campaign.